Main Menu

Art

If you are new to blogging you may be wondering how you can make even more money from your blogging efforts. Making money from blogging is often referred to as monetizing blogs. When the time comes that you are interested in monetizing your blog (and for most bloggers that is from the very beginning) you will want to do a little research into the opportunities that exist to make money with blogs and the requirements for doing so. Below are a few ways that you can monetize your blogging efforts. Doing one or a combination of these things can bring in a significant income if you are willing to work hard for the money.

1. Affiliate marketing. This is one of the most effective means of earning money from a blog. Many Internet marketers are building a nice monthly income through affiliate marketing efforts on their blogs. You sign up as an affiliate with a company or to sell a specific product and advertise that company or product on your blog. You can do this through links, buttons, and/or banners on your blog. Be careful that your blog doesn't read as if it were a walking advertisement and you should be able to build a sizable income through affiliate marketing on your blog.

2. Direct product promotion. Sometimes entire blogs exist to sell one item and one item alone. Some feel that this is a lot of work for limited results while others will argue that the focus will drive a very specific group of people to the blog—those looking for what you have to sell. This ensures that the traffic is highly targeted and increases the odds that the traffic will result in sales.

3. Paid blog posting. This has become a growing trend in recent years. Companies will pay you to blog about their products and include links to their company website. These are often one shot deals and your blog needs to have some sort of record of regularly monthly, weekly, or daily traffic in order to get the best offers. It is a good idea to let your readers know when you are being paid to promote a product or website in the spirit of full disclosure.

4. Paid to blog. Believe it or not, there are companies out there that know the benefit a blog could bring to their sales but have no interest, desire, or expertise when it comes to building a blog or a blog readership. In an effort to reach out to their potential customer base they will hire writers to blog for them. While this doesn't directly help your business it can increase your exposure in the “blog – o – sphere” and provide valuable backlinks to your own blogging efforts.

As you can see there are plenty of ways to monetize your blogging efforts and we've barely begun to scratch the surface. There are plenty of opportunities to make money with a successful blog but the key ingredient is learning to get the traffic and then learning to convert that traffic into clicks, views, and/or sales.

The one thing that all bloggers covet is traffic. Provided that the traffic is quality traffic and not the typical garbage traffic generated by traffic systems that are so common online there can never really be enough traffic for the blogger who is making money based on advertising, Adsense, or affiliate marketing efforts for their blog. So, how do you get the high traffic and excellent results you are looking for? This is the burning question on the mind of many bloggers, new and seasoned alike. Put some of these practices into play and see how quickly your traffic starts to reach new heights.

1) Quality over quantity. It is great to have a mile long list of blog posts. It is even better if these posts are informative, entertaining, and considered valuable by the readers of your blog. It doesn't really matter if you can create 30 posts a day if they are what would be considered garbage posts or filler articles. Make every word matter and your audience will hang on every single one. Even better, your audience will grow steadily and regularly.

2) Get your audience involved. Ask questions, invite comments, include polls in your posts, and create controversy. These are the things that keep people coming back week after week and, more importantly when you are trying to build your numbers, telling their friends about your blog.

3) Keep it on target. What this means is that your blog should have a clearly defined niche and never stray from that niche. If you venture too far away you will lose the audience that is coming back for specific advice, information, etc. Also keeping your posts targeted to your niche will help the search engines identify the market you are best suited to serve. This helps them find your blog and rank it well.

4) Submit your blog to the search engines. Manual submission is time consuming but an effort that will pay off in results over time. It is worth learning how to do this and doing it for every blog that you begin.

5) Be passionate. One of the best things you can do for your blog if traffic is your goal is to let your passion for your blogging topic show through. Readers should feel your passion in every word and every post. This alone will bring in subscribers steadily over time. If you have difficulty letting your passion for your blog topic shine or feel you need a break, consider bringing in guest bloggers or contracting writers to do the work for you until you can renew your passion. Everyone needs a break sometimes but do not stay away too long because you are the glue that holds your blog together.

Building blog traffic is a process. It takes a little bit of time. Don't have expectations that are unrealistic and impossible to fulfill. Instead, take one day at a time and enjoy better profits and a larger audience as it comes.